In 1888, miners discovered rich gold and silver deposits in the gulches surrounding Flat Creek north of Superior. A small town sprung up there and took the name of an early mine owner and investor, J. K. Pardee. He called his mine Iron Mountain. The Iron Mountain Company contributed tens of thousands of dollars to road improvements and bridge building, the better to connect their small community to the nearby Northern Pacific Railroad.

Miners stripped the richly forested ridges bare to provide lumber for the booming camp at Pardee. By 1890, the town boasted a red light district, boarding houses for miners, gambling dens, dance halls, saloons, and a union hall. A stage ran between Superior and Pardee every other day. The Iron Mountain Company installed a concentrator and handled much of the ore processing 1 mile south of town. Around 120 men worked the Iron Mountain Mine or in related enterprises. In 1897, the state inspector visited the mine and closed the operation because the shaft only had one escape route. Montana state law required two.

Shortly after the mine closed, a fire destroyed much of Pardee. The Iron Mountain Tunnel Company purchased the claim in 1904 and ran the mine successfully until the 1920s, when the cost of minerals dropped and the operation became unprofitable. Though investors have sporadically reopened the operation over the years, by the mid-1930s visitors noted “the mine has been idle for many years, and Pardee abandoned.” Today only a few scattered cabin and mine ruins remain.

Credits and Sources:

Davis, Deb. Along the Mullan Trail.Publisher unknown, date unknown.

Federal Writer’s Project. Montana, a State Guide Book. New York: The Viking Press, 1939.

Hahn, Margie E. Montana’s Mineral County in Retrospect.Stevensville, MT: Stoneydale Press Publishing Company, 1997.

Lindeman, Glen W., et al. A Cultural Resources Survey of the Bonneville Power Administration’s Garrison-Taft 500 kV Transmission Line Project, Western Montana.Cheney, WA: Archaeological and Historical Services, 1984.

Mineral County Historical Society. Mineral County History.Superior, MT: Mineral County Historical Society, 2004.

Historic photographs of “Street in Pardee,” “Miners at Pardee,” “Town of Pardee,” “Town of Iron Mountain,” “Iron Mountain Mine Train,” and “Iron Mountain Mine Mill” courtesy of Mineral County Historical Museum, Superior, MT.

Contemporary photograph of Iron Mill town site courtesy of Mineral County Historical Museum, Superior, MT.